Windows Phone 7 draws ever closer with ads, launch dates

The first Windows Phone 7 ads have made their way to YouTube, and it looks …

We already know that Windows Phone 7 would be launched in October in the EU, November in the US, but even as September draws to a close, we still don't know exactly when the new smartphone platform is launching.

We still don't know for sure, but there are now a few candidates. Paul Thurrott is reporting that the US launch will be November 8. More difficult to place is the EU launch. Microsoft is having simultaneous press events in New York City and London on October 11. Somethink that this will be a Windows Phone 7 event; Paul Thurrott, however, is insistent that it isn't.

Regardless of the nature of the October 11 event, retail availability within the EU is believed to be coming on October 21. One likely possibility is that the earlier event will be when the marketing campaign is kicked off, with devices available for purchase ten days later.

Speaking of marketing, a couple of Windows Phone 7 ads have appeared. The ads are both AT&T branded (which isn't surprising, as the platform won't support CDMA until next year), and both mention the (as-yet unannounced, but long-rumored) HTC Mondrian.

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However, the focus isn't the phone, or even the operating system as such. Rather, the ads draw attention to the relationship people have with their phones: it pokes fun at the people who are always fixated on their phones, tap-tap-tapping away, doing something or other while standing in line, eating their lunch, and so on. According to the ads, Windows Phone 7, with its more glance-friendly interface, shows you what you need to know right away, so that you can get on with living your life: a "phone to save you from your phone."

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There's certainly an element of truth to the ads, though whether Microsoft-powered phones will truly provide a solution is not obvious—if there are good applications for the platform, which the company is certainly counting on, then people are surely going to be just as glued to their Windows Phone 7 handsets as they will their iPhones or Androids.